Carleton
Ellis
(1876 - 1941)
invented
unsaturated
polyesters
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Carleton
Ellis was author, in 1923, of a comprehensive
treatise on synthetic resins and plastics. In
1933 he took out a patent concerning polyester
resins and followed this in 1940 with the
suggestion of polymerising together a liquid
unsaturated polyester resin (made using maleic
anhydride) and styrene monomer using a peroxide
catalyst. This was the start of polyester casting
resins and low-pressure laminating.
Although at the time he was mainly interested in
developing surface coatings, the whole field of
GRP technology has evolved from this beginning.
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